In these times of turmoil when the world around us often seems to be falling apart, with so much hatred and killing touching all our lives. I thought I would create a place for us to go to for peaceful moments, when we feel the need to escape the ever increasing stream of endless bad news we are exposed to. Share whatever brings peace into your life in these troubled times. Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action-- Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. -Gitanjali
Peace for me is coming home after a few days of watching my 3 youngest grandsons 24/7 while their parents go on a short trip. They are 9, 6 and 3 and the loves of my life but when I watch them I go to bed and pray I dont wake up, lol. I always tell myself that I will never agree to do it again, but I always do.
This is a short and tender piece written by William Walton for the 1944 movie Henry V, it's titled "Touch her soft lips and part" I first came across it in the 1950's on a vinyl compilation, and it has haunted me ever since, whenever I listen to it I feel a peace beyond all understanding.
Wonderful to see peace a place to dwell. Peace can bring about much more than people realize. Peace can save lives. Peace can bring solutions to whatever the world is going through. Peace: image from http://www.aunicorntshirt.com/uteeserenity.html Peace can bring the change the world needs. Let's hope for the future and peace.
This is a metaphorical song about a journey through life by Ralph Mctell called "The Traveller" The Traveller Oh, the traveller moving on the land, behold I give you, I give you the travelling man. And he's very heavy laden with the questions in his burden. Lo, and I give you the travelling man. He has crossed the mountains, he has forded streams. He has spent a long time surviving on his dreams. Many times he's tried to lighten up his heavy load. But his compromises fail him and he ends back on the road. Oh the traveller he is weary, the travelling man he is tired. For the road is never ending in his fear he has cried aloud for a saviour And in vain for a teacher, someone to lighten up the load And he's heard the sounds of war in a gentle shower of rain And the whisperings of despair that he could not explain. The reason for his journey, or the reason it began Or was there any reason for the travelling man. At last he reached a river so beautiful and wide But the current was so strong he could not reach the other side And the weary travelling man looked for a ferryman strong enough to row against the tide, And the ferryman was old but he moved the boat so well, Or did the river move the boat? The traveller could not tell. Said the ferryman, "You're weary and the answers that you seek, Are in the singing river, listen humbly it will speak." Oh, the traveller closed his eyes and he listened and he heard Only the river murmuring and the beating of his heart. Then he heard the river laughing, and he heard the river crying And in it was the beauty and the sadness of the world And he heard the sounds of dying, but he heard the sounds of birth And slowly his ears heard all the sounds of earth. The sounds blended together and they became a whole And the rhythm was his heartbeat to the music his soul. And the river had no beginning, as it flowed into the sea And the seas filled the clouds and the rains filled the streams And as slowly as the sunrise, he opened up his eyes To find the ferryman had gone, the boat moved gently on the tide. And the river flowed within him, and with it he was one And the seas moved around the earth, and the earth around the sun. And the traveller was the river, was the boat and ferryman, Was the journey and the song that the singing river sang.